Chapter 68
Chapter 68
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Translator: penny
Chapter: 68
Chapter Title: Our House's Monster (1)
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In the end, we successfully rescued all three hackers who'd been trapped underground.
The moment they stepped outside, messages I'd been waiting for began popping up in front of my eyes one after another.
[Main Quest Cleared.]
[Objective Achieved: Dongto's Forces Reduced (3/3 Completed)]
[Dongto's influence has weakened.]
[Dongto's Exploration Team 1 and Exploration Team 2 have begun operations. Exercise extreme caution.]
[Map skill has been enhanced.]
[Next Main Quest begins in one week.]
"Extreme caution?"
Along with the welcome news that Dongto's influence had weakened, there was a chilling warning that their elite Teams 1 and 2 were starting to move.
The quests had never warned about needing caution before.
Just what kind of people were they?
It looked like Dongto's real operations were about to begin in earnest.
I immediately checked the newly enhanced map skill.
Previously, the map had only shown basic terrain and monsters, but now it began displaying names of people or animals closely related to me directly on it.
At the company location on the map, names like [Bora], [Shun], [Hanbit], and [Sunja] appeared alongside small icons.
This was a pretty useful feature.
Once everything was sorted out, two of the three people we'd rescued headed back to their homes.
Of course, since I wasn't sure if their homes were truly safe, I recommended they grab only the essentials and contact White Tiger first.
Hackers imprisoned by Dongto.
That was the kind of story White Tiger would be interested in.
They might even get protection.
The last one, the woman with the monster fetish, didn't go home and stayed by my side, intently staring at her phone.
"...You don't need to go back home?"
When I asked, she replied indifferently without taking her eyes off her phone.
"I don't have a home. No place to go back to."
"...Ah, sorry."
Hearing that made my heart sink with guilt.
Maybe that's why she'd tried to stay in that prison-like place earlier—because she really had nowhere to go.
Her talk about liking monsters might have just been an excuse.
Feeling sorry, I cautiously suggested,
"Then... if you don't have anywhere to stay for a while, how about crashing at my place temporarily..."
"No thanks."
She cut me off sharply.
"I've got money. I'll stay at that hotel where monsters are supposed to show up."
I had a feeling I knew which one she meant.
I was at a loss for words for a moment.
At least she had money, thankfully.
Dongto's bunch were a real joke.
They'd tricked people into thinking they were monsters, locked them underground so they couldn't escape, but still paid their salaries on time.
Well, they probably wouldn't have done the administrator work if they'd just imprisoned them outright.
While I stood there dumbfounded, the woman next to me deftly booked a hotel on her phone.
She was decisive, no hesitation.
After finishing the reservation, she suddenly turned to me and introduced herself.
"I'm Choi Yerim."
Since she'd given her name, I gave mine.
"I'm Kim Minjun."
At that moment, off to one side of my vision, [Choi Yerim] appeared on the map as a new icon.
So that's how people who get closely connected to me show up.
Choi Yerim immediately asked about my strength.
Her eyes were filled with unmistakable curiosity.
"But that power earlier, ripping the door open like that—where does that superhuman strength come from?"
"...Not an item..."
I couldn't exactly say it was thanks to Cheat Mode, so it was a tricky question to answer honestly.
As I hesitated, she pierced right through me, as if reading my mind, and shared something she'd realized while managing the Monster Gallery and various sites herself.
"There are ability users and items, right? In my opinion, that strength—all powers like that borrow from monsters in some form."
She laid out a fascinating—and dangerous—hypothesis.
"For example, shamans draw power through spirit possession. The ancestral spirits or general spirits they talk about? They're ultimately higher-level monsters of unknown origin."
"That's quite..."
It was the kind of hypothesis that would make Jinmyeong Group members or shamans shout in outrage.
But it wasn't entirely far-fetched either.
She continued.
"That's why some items have blatant side effects that harm the user. They're objects possessed by monsters, after all. The monster's traits or malice manifest as side effects."
"...There are items without side effects too."
"Yeah, that's why I think there are good monsters that are harmless to humans."
That was another radical statement.
Fitting for someone with a monster fetish—or rather, a monster enthusiast.
Her hypothesis had a strange persuasiveness.
"I learned it all from the community."
And just like that, the persuasiveness dropped off a cliff.
"So... that power of yours is probably related to monsters too."
My power being connected to monsters.
It was an intriguing perspective.
"I only saw you use it briefly, but it looked... just like a monster. That's a compliment, by the way."
"..."
She called it a compliment, but it made me reflect on my own appearance.
Did I really look that monstrous?
Come to think of it, my teammates always gave strained smiles whenever I showed off my super strength.
Maybe I should be more careful?
Next time, I should pretend to strain myself a bit.
Before parting with Choi Yerim, we exchanged numbers one last time.
Even as we said goodbye, she kept urging me to let her see a real monster as soon as possible.
I gave a wry smile and said sure, but honestly, I was stumped. I couldn't bring her along on White Tiger's official missions.
Most were urgent rescue ops, and dragging a civilian into those scenes was way too risky.
"...No helping it."
Back home, I headed to Daeho to brainstorm another way.
He looked too much like an ordinary tiger to be a monster, but with his glowing body and size-changing abilities, he was definitely not normal.
If he just showed a bit of that power, I could keep my promise to Choi Yerim.
"Daeho. Hey?"
"Grrr..."
I approached Daeho rolling around on the sofa and coaxed him gently.
Wary at first of my sudden friendly tone, he soon purred contentedly as I scratched under his chin.
"Daeho, can you do that thing from last time? Make your body flash with light and grow? Pretty please?"
"...Grr."
Seeing his lukewarm reaction, I pulled out my secret weapon.
"Look at this. Your favorite—item. Do it once, and it's yours."
I took out the small compass I'd grabbed from the mart a while back and dangled it in front of him.
Since he'd chomped on a few items before, I figured this would win him over.
But Daeho let out a "Yip!"—a dog-like bark I'd never heard from him before—like he was wronged.
His vocalizations were getting more varied. Any day now, he'd start talking.
"Don't you like items?"
That was when Leo, who'd been watching quietly, sidled up beside me.
He looked up at me with a low "Grr..." that seemed to say, *If he doesn't want it, give it to me.*
His eyes were locked on the item.
I snorted.
"You don't even know how dangerous items are... Huh?"
Right then, Leo leaped up and snatched the compass from my hand with his teeth.
"Ah! Hey, Leo!"
Panicking, I reached to pry it from him, and Leo opened his mouth, dropping the compass.
I thought it would clatter to the floor.
"Huh?"
Crunch!
But before it hit the ground, Leo's long black shadow stretched from my feet, snapped it up like a living thing, and swallowed it whole.
I couldn't believe my eyes, but I'd seen it clearly.
The shadow had gaped open wide, snatched the compass item, and gulped it down.
"...Leo, you... don't tell me..."
"G-Grr..."
Leo's eyes shook violently.
As if even he hadn't meant to do it.
And Leo's shadow, after swallowing the compass, felt just a tad— but unmistakably—darker and longer than before.
Only then did I truly look at Leo for the first time.
I activated the map skill—which rarely worked inside the house—and checked our home interior.
On the map, at our house's location, two vivid red dots blinked. The danger-signaling red dots that marked monsters.
And hovering above those two dots were achingly familiar names.
[Daeho]
[Leo]
Daeho was one thing, but my cat—Leo, who I'd thought was just a normal stray this whole time—was a monster too.
My ordinary cat was actually a monster.
"You... you little...!"
Overwhelmed with betrayal, I grabbed Leo, who was casually looking up at me from the floor, and hoisted him up.
I scolded him for deceiving me all this time, for not saying anything, shaking his small body gently side to side.
His limp, flexible form swayed.
"Why didn't you tell me?!"
"Meow..."
Held in my hand, Leo let out the most pitiful wail, like he was the wronged one in the world.
Hearing it, I let out a hollow chuckle.
Right—what was I even doing? As if he could talk.
Monster or not, he still looked like a cat.
"...Sigh..."
With a deep sigh, I set Leo down.
Then, all the weird things about Leo I'd overlooked started flashing through my mind one by one.
Now that I thought about it, Leo had never once meowed normally like "meow" since the day he first came home.
He always growled "Grr..." or rumbled low even when happy.
Exactly like Daeho.
I'd just thought he was a quirky cat. Now it all made sense.
Eating meat, steadily growing bigger... understanding my words eerily well.
"...Unbelievable."
Could I call our house a mini monster phenomenon?
I gave a wry smile.
Keeping my promise to Yerim about showing her a monster would be easy now.
"...Grr."
Leo and Daeho looked up at me.
With rare, cautious expressions in their eyes.
Yeah, monsters or not, Daeho was Daeho, and Leo was Leo.
"Don't worry. Even if you're monsters, I'll take responsibility and keep raising you guys."
"Grr."
Daeho purred happily at my words, while Leo wore a subtly complex expression.